We are not meant to know the time or the nature of our deaths (for all of us secretly hope that we may be immortal).

Once upon a time – for that is how all stories should begin – there was a boy who lost his mother.

We heard rumors over the years that Fantasy was on the market, but nothing materialized,

What is good for you creatively is usually bad commercially. You thrive financially by sticking to a series and not fiddling about too much. You do yourself harm by moving away from the series and the genre. By trying things not based in that particular mode of writing, you will just lose readers.

You have to understand that only the very worst end up here: the ones whose anger made them kill, and who felt no sorrow or guilt after the act; those so obsessed with themselves that they turned their backs on the sufferings of others, and left them in pain; those whose greed meant that others starved and died. Such souls belong here, because they would find no peace elsewhere. In this place, they are understood. In this place, their faults have meaning. In this place, they belong.

Prepare for the worst and you won’t be disappointed.